The Beginning Of An End
Rock: This is the story of how the Curtis parents met. It's set in the Pacific during WWII. Please be patient, settings and things take time to develop. Hope you all enjoy! Please Read and Review…that's the only way this story will ever go anywhere. Enjoy!
Taurus: Yes review! Most of this chapter was done by rock, so all the credit should go to her, I only did the end and some other teeny bits.
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Eleanor's POV
It was the beginning of a new shift, one more day of rows upon rows of boys who shouldn't be in hospital beds suffering. A new shift with new kids being brought in from mortar fire and gun shots. I didn't look forward to it, I hated to hear grown men toughened by war screaming out for their mothers or crying till they were hardly able to breathe. But I went anyway, it was my job and my meaning. I was doing what part I could to help them.
"El, I have a new patient for you," Maggie, the head nurse in our ward called to me.
"Another one? They aren't fairing well onshore, are they?" I asked almost too tired to think about taking care of yet another young Marine.
She lifted her eyebrows, and gave me a 'Do they ever' kind of look. It was fair enough.
"Where's the chart?" I asked, knowing she gave me more patients because even at my young age I could handle it.
She handed it to me from a large stack overflowing in her left arm, "Corporal Curtis, 18, mortar to upper leg." She gave me the stats and walked off calling another nurse. I sighed, eighteen? He was too young to be on a hospital boat in pain. Then again, most though I was too young to be a nurse and see the things I saw every shift.
I looked through the chart noting that he had been in surgery half the night and had shrapnel in more than a few places besides his left leg. Soon, I slung the chart under my right arm and walked into the ward.
On each side of the center isle, beds spaced perfectly three feet apart lined each bulkhead. White sheets and hanging glass bottles of medicine where everywhere, and each man looked different. Some were asleep or too drugged to move, and others called after me whistling in their boredom and overwhelming need for a gal. I had grown accustomed to the site and sound of such, and ignored it all.
Finally I reached my assigned area of the ward. I was over quite a few patients now, and looked around to make sure none of them needed immediate assistance. When I saw they didn't, I searched for Mary, the nurse on the shift before me.
"Hi, Mary." I smiled when the California girl of a year older than me turned, "You're off, go eat and sleep. Earlier the doc said we are expecting in another wave soon, they are moving us to longer shifts, so get what you can." I informed her nicely. We shared our quarters, although we rarely saw each other with the alternating shifts we worked. Still, we were good friends after a few months at sea.
"Thanks, El." She put a chart back into the slot of possibly the worst injured man in the ward's bed. His name was Thomas, but we called him Tommy, as it seemed to calm him down. She nodded towards him and walked over to me, "Tommy had a rough night, the doctor has been in and out with him, but he's under for now. I haven't gotten to these three yet." She pointed to the new guy, Ben and Hatters. "You want to start with them and then just keep and eye out. The new guy…Curtis his name is, come in about three hours ago, should be awake soon."
I nodded, the men were normally disoriented when they woke and sometimes it took a long time to get them calm. We liked to be there or near them when the time came, although it was frequently unpredictable as to when they would really come around.
Mary left then, her eyes drooping after a busy few days. I decided to start with Benjamin. He was a twenty year old, cocky soldier, buzzed down with a machine gun two days before. Lucky for him, the bullets had somehow missed anything important and he was doing well enough to be the liveliest man of the bunch.
"Ben, I hope you are ready for a walk today. First one." I walked over to his bed.
"That's Wally to you, El." Walter was his first name, but we went by last names in here, trying not to get too personal; although we did end up shortening the names for convenience sake.
I smiled, "And that's nurse to you, Benny." I responded. I tried to be sweet but strict, especially with guys like Ben who loved to flirt and ask you on dates five times a shift, "Some new nurses came in last night, one of them will be walking with you today. It will be short, and then I'll redress your wounds afterwards. Your new nurse friend should be in here anytime now."
"Is she cute?" Benjamin asked in a flirtatious tone.
"You be nice and gentlemanly," I scolded to him quietly. It was rare that I scolded anyone, and for that reason I had the reputation of a sweet nurse in the ward. There was no reason to thwart that for one lively soldier who deserved more than to be confined to a bed in a room full of white and grey, "I'll slip you some dessert if you are." I winked. Bribery always worked.
Benjamin smiled and I replaced his hanging IV for another full batch. He might be lively, but he still needed his pain killers and fluids.
"Hey, look who's awake." He was looking to the left of him, where the new guy was laying.
I whipped around, happy that I didn't have to scurry across the room this time. The more than handsome man, well, he looked it at least, was just starting to part his eyes as he moved his head around in confusion. Moving a few steps towards him, I grabbed a rag from a nearby basin and ran it along his sweaty forehead. This was something that normally woke them up with ease and calmed them also.
"Corporal Curtis?" I got the rag wet again and ran it along his forehead once more. He didn't resist it, instead seemed to enjoy it, his head no longer moving side to side like he was having a bad dream.
He finally calmed, and opened his eyes in slits against the light.
"Corporal Curtis, I'm your nurse. Can you squeeze my hand?" We did this to see how strong and awake they were. Sometimes things still wouldn't register.
Instead of doing as I asked he grinned a lopsided happy-go-lucky smile and promptly fell back asleep. I wanted to laugh, but I guess I was too confused for that. Instead I ran the rag across his forehead again.
"What an odd ball," Benjamin muttered.
"Not jealous are we?"
"Why would I be jealous?"
I shrugged and turned back around to Corporal Curtis, "Because he didn't say anything obscene when he first opened his eyes." I mumbled loud enough for Benjamin to hear me, but soft enough that no one else would hear me and think I was actually playing along with a patient.
"Heh, right." Ben chuckled behind me, "I'm sure no one would back that one up."
"I would." Rose, another nurse in the ward passed by, affirming something she could only guess was correct.
I smirked and moved on to my next patient after making a note on pretty boys chart.
My rounds were going slowly that morning, although becoming progressively chaotic. After I found one patient with a seeping infection and raging fever, a fight between two men broke out, and then I was left to calm a grieving brother. That was only the first two hours of my shift, the few hours following that brought another small wave of screaming men reduced to boys along with training new nurses in the ward.
Body wearing down, I looked over at the clock on the bulkhead, realizing this shift was going to be the longest of the week. It had only been an hour and a half, and it felt like a lifetime. I heard my stomach rumble, but had no time to consider it. Another batch of wounded was flowing into the already trampled ward. We needed more nurses, I sighed.
"El! We have three for you. Who else is on?" A voice I was familiar with hearing called out.
But before I could answer, my thoughts were drowned out by yelling from other medics, transport docs, and men in pain. "We need a Doc!" "God help us." "Someone needs to stop this war, dammit!" "Help me!" I hated the moments when everyone's screams intermingled, and reality hit. I wasn't just on a ship in the pacific. I was fighting a war.
As men flowed in, I started directing them to different parts of the ward, where-ever we had room. When we got a chance, we would put them in different areas according to severity, but that luxury had disappeared with three waves of men coming in in three hours.
Once my job of filtering men was finished, I ran over to one that hadn't been cared for yet. He had shrapnel in his thigh, and a nasty cut on his forehead.
"What's your name?" I asked him, before reaching over to grab an IV to start in his arm.
"Alex" He groaned a bit afterwards, but was doing well with a manly façade.
"How old are you, Alex?" I tried to keep them talking even as I did things. It helped keep most soldiers calm.
"Twenty."
"I'm going to get you started on some pain medication and fluids, okay? Its going in your arm, but it will only hurt for a moment. Do you have a girl back home?" I strung everything together, but it worked the same.
"Yeah -- " It seemed he was about to say more, but got cut off.
"What do we have, El?" One of the doctors had run in from another area, stopping at my table.
"Shrapnel to the thigh, laceration to the forehead."
"Get him on morphine and plasma, move on. You'll be fine, Soldier." With that he ran off, and moments later I moved to another patient also.
The next hour went something like that, full on chaos, extra doctors, nurses, and more and more hurt men. The wave wasn't letting up, and the medics weren't staying long.
Slowly, things started to calm near the end of the hour. Four hours into shift, and I needed a well deserved break. The doctors were filtering in and out from surgery, all the nurses were bending to accommodate everyone, the medics had finally stopped bringing new wounded, and a few even stayed to help out, and I finally felt things were half way under control.
I wandered the ward, looking over the men we now had, new and not, making sure things were taken care of before I took my break. I came up on Tommy and checked him over. He was still out from whatever medication they had given him, and looked to be fine.
"Hey El!" One of the men called, I knew that voice.
"Do you need something, Benjamin?" I walked over to the foot of his bed.
"That was a kick in the pants, huh?" He was far too happy for the occasion.
"I don't wear pants, Sergeant." I pulled out his chart, seeing he hadn't gotten his morning lap, but it didn't surprise me. "Now, did you need something, or just some company?"
"I didn't get my morning walk you promised."
"Well, it's been moved to the afternoon. You don't get first class treatment on these ships."
He laughed jovially, "As long as I meet my new girl!"
I shook my head, moving to Curtis. He was still out, which was slightly concerning. However, it was anyone's best guess that he may have woken in the chaos, with no one there to see it. Ben wouldn't have seen it either, he had the habit of riveting his eyes to see if any of his men were about to die in front of his eyes.
Sighing, I pulled his chart, made a few notes, and moved on.
Fifteen minutes later, I found myself on break, leaning over a rail on deck, seeing the smoke pummel from spots on the far off island.
"Pretty bad morning out there." A voice came up beside me, a hand sliding over mine on the railing. I smiled, I was always happy to see my man. It had been four days since he last came aboard, and I was starting to get worried that something had happened to him. But somehow he always came back, and he always surprised me.
I looked over, "Yeah. This war is crazy. None of those kids should be here."
James leaned over the rail, both his elbows resting there, "Maybe no one should, but we all are." He shrugged, "At least we all find something." He smiled over at me.
"You want something to eat?" I asked, "I'm starving, and I go back on shift in thirty."
"Yeah, let's eat. Boy am I sick of C-rations."
The next half hour I spent with James. He was my boyfriend, one of the medics I met a few months back after arriving here. He frequently was wherever our ship got sent, so we saw each other often, and if not, we wrote. He was a sweet guy, knowledgeable and brave, handsome and tall. I guessed any girl would fall for him, but he fell for me.
Soon we had to say good-bye. He gave me a hug, and a kiss, not wanting to let me go. "I miss you every time I leave, El. Its hell out there." He commented before letting me go and walking away.
I just smiled, "Be safe."
Then I made my way back to the ward, to bloodied up men and the smell of antiseptic. The daily routine kicked in, and time started speeding up. Men were wheeled in and out, but more were just sleeping. Our new nurses had seen the worst of it, and seemed to be settling down quicker than usual. And I finally knew James was okay, so things seemed better.
Once again, I made rounds, stopping at Tommy to check his temperature and hope things were going better with him. Turned out a twenty minute ordeal couldn't save his life. I guess we all knew it was a long shot that he would live. He took a mortar to the chest, and it had recently puffed up with infection. Still, seeing any death was heart wrenching, and again it made me wonder what we were doing there.
I sat by Tommy's bedside after the doctor had left, cleaning him up a little, waiting for the chaplain to come give him his last rights. No one knew what everyone's religion was, but if they didn't have a tag, they still got last rights, just in case. A feeling of sadness and quiet morning drifted through the air, and even the most rambunctious of the men seemed to be effected by it. I wondered how much death they saw in a day, how many buddies they had seen stumble and fall, and never say another word. It just wasn't right.
The silence was broken suddenly, by thrashing, screaming, and a breaking bottle. I looked around, trying to figure out what was happening.
"El!" Bens voice rang out once again, but this time it had urgency in it. "Shit…get over here!"
By the time I had made it over to that end of the ward, Benjamin was out of his bed, on his bad leg, and restraining our new Corporal Curtis who was thrashing, shaking, and screaming in his bed. I went up to his head, trying to calm him with cool water and soothing words, but it wasn't helping. He was asleep, having a nightmare, and his newly developed fever wasn't helping him wake.
"Curtis!" I held his head still, praying he would wake soon, even as futile as it seemed. Lucky for me, a doctor was nearby, he ran over, placing and injection in the boys arm, instantly calming him.
"How high is the fever?" he asked after we had gotten Ben situated again, and were starting to clean up.
"Last I checked, he didn't have one." I started picking up glass shards from the medicine bottle that had fallen to the floor after Curtis tore his IV out.
"Right. Keep an eye out for this one."
Things again went back to routine after that, the usual, and the not. Truth was, nothing ever was routine here, but somehow that became routine too. During that time, I kept a close eye on Curtis. He didn't have another episode, but his fever kept climbing, and finally dropped to a safer level. Pretty boy was sure sickly.
Three hours later, he woke. During the time between his episode and finally waking, he just lay there calmly like he was in a deep sleep. That was slightly terrifying and I would constantly find myself checking if he still had a pulse. He finally woke at midnight-ish.
"Hey there, you're not going to pass out on me again, are you?" I asked. Checking his temperature, his dressings, and everything else as I spoke.
"I'm Darrell," he smiled. "Want to go out for coffee?" He said before passing out again. I stared at him bewildered.
"Told you, he was odd." Benjamin muttered behind me.
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